Wireless, mobile devices are continually evolving towards higher data rates and greater processing power. With these capabilities, an endless variety of functions and features can be realized through the installation of software or firmware modules within mobile devices such as wireless phones and personal data assistants. These software modules can be used for functions related to playing music, communicating with video or graphics, or even basic security or access algorithms to allow a mobile device to be used in multiple types of networks, or internationally.
Software packages or modules such as those just discussed are frequently developed by third party companies and are licensed to mobile device manufacturers for inclusion in mobile devices. The types of commercial agreements regarding the use of a software module provided by its author to a mobile device manufacturer include but are not limited to agreements specifying outright purchase of the module, exclusive licensing of the module, a one time payment by the device manufacturer for nonexclusive use of the module, or payment by a device manufacturer for each device which contains the module. While any of these alternatives are viable where the software module package provides basic functionality, or a feature that is expected to be widely used, such agreements are less than optimum where the module is not expected to be used by a majority of purchasers of a mobile device, or when end-user interest is difficult to predict prior to wide-spread distribution of the mobile device. It will often be desirable for a mobile device manufacturer to advertise and offer the function provided by the software module but ideally the manufacturer would not pay a licensing fee for “dormant” modules which are not used. For example, a module for decoding compressed music, such as MP3 files, may only be used by a small number of users who subscribe to a music download service. If this is the case, the mobile device manufacturer would in an ideal arrangement not have to pay for all of the unused modules, despite the fact that the module is installed in each of the distributed mobile devices.